Fedora 8 on Playstation 3 | ramblings.narrabilis.com

There are several pages out there on how to do this. I found that they were mostly dead and I had to use google cache on them. I'm just reposting a lot of information here... Geoff Levand does all the kernel work. His home page has a lot of useful information. This link seems to be the most complete, but inaccessible http://bohmer.net/ps3_stuff/install-fedora-8-on-PS3.html.

Make a Partition for Linux

Go to Settings -> System Settings -> Format Utility
Select Format Hard Disk
Select Custom format
Select 10GB for Linux (it really doesn't make sense to only give your PS3 10GB). Follow the prompts and reboot the machine

Install Linux Bootloader (kboot)

Burn the latest kboot to a CD. Look here
Insert the kboot CD into the PS3 and select Settings -> System Settings -> Install other OS

Install Fedora

Insert the Fedora DVD in the PS3
Switch on the PS3, and wait for the KBoot prompt.
At the kboot: prompt type 'linux64 text xdriver=fbdev'
Install Fedora to your liking, I recommend not installing GNOME or KDE, go with XFCE4, there isn't enough memory in the PS3 for GNOME.
Note: Many of the installation guides have default partition layouts prescribed, the normal is to have 196MB for boot, 512MB for swap (the PS3 has 256MB of RAM) and use the rest for your root (/). You can use whatever you feel like though.

Reboot after installation. You'll see an error https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=389331. You need to fix up the boot line in yaboot.
Reinsert the installation CD and type linux rescue at the kboot prompt.
Once the system is up in recovery mode cd to /mnt/sysimage and then find /etc/yaboot.conf under there.
Change root=LABEL=/ to root=/dev/ps3da3 *or whatever your root partition is.
You can also change your resolution at this point to something other than the default 480p. You do this by adding video=ps3fb:mode: to the append part of the kernel line in yaboot.conf. Here is a table (that I didn't write) that shows the various values for mode.

YUV	60Hz	1:480i	2:480p	3:720p	4:1080i	5:1080p
YUV	50Hz	6:576i	7:576p	8:720p	9:1080i	10:1080p
RGB	60Hz	33:480i	34:480p	35:720p	36:1080i	37:1080p
RGB	50Hz	38:576i	39:576p	40:720p	41:1080i	42:1080p
VESA		11:WXGA	12:SXGA	13:WUXGA

0:auto mode, full screen mode: <video mode ID> + 128, dither ON mode : <video mode ID> + 2048
(138 is thus: 1080p Full Screen PAL mode, 50Hz.) Save your changes and copy the file to /mnt/sysimage/boot/yaboot/yaboot.conf and reboot

Update your system
yum -y upgrade

Turn off everything you don't need
Run this: chkconfig --list |grep 3:on
Look at the list of things that are started at boot and turn off everything you don't need.
Here is my list of things actually running at runlevel 3

[root@ps3 ~]# chkconfig --list |grep 3:on
ConsoleKit      0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
anacron         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
bluetooth       0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
cpuspeed        0:off   1:on    2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
crond           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
haldaemon       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
irqbalance      0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
messagebus      0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
network         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
nscd            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
pand            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
rsyslog         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
sshd            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
udev-post       0:off   1:off   2:off   3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
[root@ps3 ~]#

Those should be about all you need. You can probably even do without nscd, but I find the system runs better with it enabled...slow resolver possibly?

Configure your desktop...install XFCE, trust me.
yum groupinstall XFCE

[root@ps3 ~]# cat .xinitrc
exec xfce4-session
EOF
[root@ps3 ~]# startx

Recompile a smaller kernel
The fedora kernel has a lot of stuff in it you will not need.
First thing, install dtc, some pages say to get the git like this:

git clone git://www.jdl.com/software/dtc.git dtc
cd dtc
make
su (Switch to root user)
cp dtc /usr/bin/

I find that yum does the job better, and jdl.com is always down it seems.

yum -y install dtc

Get the latest patched source tree from Geoff at http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/CELL-Linux-CL_…
He seems to update this regularly, so use lftp to get the latest directories and versions.

[root@ps3 ~]# lftp www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell
cd ok, cwd=/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell                                      
lftp www.kernel.org:/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell> cd CELL-Linux-CL_20080201-ADDON/
cd ok, cwd=/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/CELL-Linux-CL_20080201-ADDON
lftp www.kernel.org:/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/CELL-Linux-CL_20080201-ADDON> cd src/
cd ok, cwd=/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/CELL-Linux-CL_20080201-ADDON/src
lftp www.kernel.org:/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/CELL-Linux-CL_20080201-ADDON/src> get linux-2.6.24-20080131.tar.bz2
48040433 bytes transferred in 102 seconds (459.1K/s)                                 
lftp www.kernel.org:/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/CELL-Linux-CL_20080201-ADDON/src> bye
[root@ps3 ~]#

Unpack the kernel source and type make ps3_defconfig to build a ps3 kernel. Or alternatively, make oldconfig then copy my kernel config into that directory and call it ".config".

[root@ps3 linux02.6.24-20080131]# wget ramblings.narrabilis.com/PS3/2.6.24.config .config
--14:39:12--  http://ramblings.narrabilis.com/PS3/2.6.24.config
           => `2.6.24.config'
Resolving ramblings.narrabilis.com... 208.97.141.182
Connecting to ramblings.narrabilis.com|208.97.141.182|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 27,478 (27K) [text/plain]

100%[============================>] 27,478        --.--K/s             

14:39:37 (929.12 KB/s) - `2.6.24.config' saved [27478/27478]

FINISHED --14:39:37--
Downloaded: 27,478 bytes in 1 files
[root@ps3 linux-2.6.24-20080131]# mv 2.6.24.config .config

now make the kernel and modules

[root@ps3 linux-2.6.24-20080131]# make -j2

(Note: -j2 to compile with more than one thread...the ps3 has several processors ;-) )

[root@ps3 linux-2.6.24-20080131]# make modules_install
[root@ps3 linux-2.6.24-20080131]# make install
  Update yaboot.conf with your new kernel information.

Just copy the lines for the default "linux" and edit so they match your shiny new kernel.
 Reboot to use your new kernel

I have my kernel as a tar here (kernel-2.6.24.tar.gz). I didn't bother with a proper rpm yet, sorry. Geoff has a kernel also, but he's missing bluetooth and oss sound support. His works well though too.

Next thing you'll want to install xmame and gens...

My kernel has an issue right now that I can't figure out...I need to reload ps3_gelic after reboot before I can access the network. Probably something silly...

Also, I can see the ps3 controllers as bluetooth devices and /var/log/messages shows them as being detected as joysticks, but I cannot actually use them with jstest. jstest shows all the buttons but when I press them, nothing happens. Suggestions?